Dyslexia is the most prominent reading disorder which has been the main focus of research for many medical enthusiasts. However, other learning and reading disorders in children, such as Specific Reading Comprehension Deficits (S-RCD), are not given much importance and therefore go unnoticed until it becomes a major problem, says a study jointly conducted by researchers at Vanderbilt's Peabody College of education and human development and the Kennedy Krieger Institute/Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Dyslexia is a medical condition where a child struggles to read fluently and to comprehend words. On the other hand, children suffering from S-RCD read successfully but do not completely understand the meaning of the words. This disability is common among children, but it is unknown to many people.

"S-RCD is like this: I can read Spanish, because I know what sounds the letters make and how the words are pronounced, but I couldn't tell you what the words actually mean," Laurie Cutting, lead investigator said. "When a child is a good reader, it's assumed their comprehension is on track. But 3 to 10 percent of those children don't understand most of what they're reading. By the time the problem is recognized, often closer to third or fourth grade, the disorder is disrupting their learning process."

Since a lot of research has been done on dyslexia, medical officials have been able to find the root cause of the problem - children affected with dyslexia displayed abnormalities in occipital-temporal cortex, a part of the brain that is linked with successfully recognizing words on a page. On the other hand, individuals suffering from S-RCD did not exhibit any defect.

As in-depth studies have not been done on S-RCD until now, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have not yet determined the neurobiological profile of those with inaccurate comprehension despite intact word-level abilities.

"It may be that these individuals have a whole different neurobiological signature associated with how they read that is not efficient for supporting comprehension," Cutting said. "We want to understand the different systems that support reading and see which ones help different types of difficulties, and how we can target the cognitive systems that support those skills."

The study is being conducted for the past 10 years and has enrolled more than 300 children to date.